Supermarket Magnate Wins Panama Presidential Election

I know no one cares about the Panama Canal anymore. But ya need to. So I will start with this article and then steer you to the history of the Canal, how we built it, and then gave it away. Yes, people, that’s what we do as American’s; WE Help People, Then We Go Away. Now read, research and learn. Yes, this is school now……:)

PANAMA CITY — Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli won Panama’s presidential elections in a landslide Sunday, taking office as the Central American nation carries out an ambitious project to expand the Panama Canal.

Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, had 61 percent of the votes against 37 percent for ruling party candidate Balbina Herrera, Panama’s Electoral Tribunal reported with 63 percent of the votes counted.

Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla called Martinelli, 57, the “indisputable winner” and said he had telephoned the candidate to inform him of his victory.

Martinelli, who owns Panama’s largest supermarket chain, said he would work for a national unity government because “that is what the country is counting on.”

“Tomorrow we will all be Panamamians and we will change this country so that it has a good health system, good education, good transportation and good security,” he said.

Herrara, a 54-year-old former housing minister, still hadn’t comment on the election results. Former President Guillermo Endara was a distant third in voting.

The winner, whose term ends in 2014, will have to guide Panama through the world economic crisis and the $5.25 billion expansion of the canal to increase its capacity and accommodate larger ships.

Now go here or do a search, there are many sites that not only tell you the history of the canal, but show you great pictures of it. It’s really cool and we built it !!!

The Panama Canal is a man-made canal which joins the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America.

Thank you Jimmy “dimmy” Carter and Bill “I feel your pain” Clinton. Oh, research their roles in all this as well.